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The Gas Station Bird

10,000 Birds

Here’s a quote about bird lungs from Britannica: “Himalayan geese have been observed not only to fly over human climbers struggling to reach the top of Mount Everest, but to honk as they do so.” The bird is a captive-bred Peregrine/Gyrfalcon hybrid owned by people with an Exotic Species Permit.

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Costa Rica’s Signature Parakeet

10,000 Birds

Every place has its common birds, the species that do very well in a given habitat. As we like to say, these are species that are “hard to miss”, birds that, if you are watching, will be seen. In northern habitats, they could be Common Ravens, geese , or chickadees. Looking for parrots at sites with rainforest?

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What is the State Bird of Hawaii?

10,000 Birds

Because of its distance to the mainland, Hawaii is home to over 60 species of endemic birds. Nenes are attractive geese, though they were named for their soft calls rather than their looks. Unlike other geese, Nenes prefer walking to swimming. Like other geese than evolved in Hawaii but went extinct, the Nene is an herbivore.

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Vagrancy in Birds: A Book Review

10,000 Birds

per cent of individuals of a species at a given time” and a vagrant bird as a bird that shows up outside of this range (p. There are many more factors than I imagined: compass errors, wind drift, overshooting, extreme weather and irruptions, natural dispersal, and human-driven vagrancy. Next time, I’ll know why.

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Snow in the Air

10,000 Birds

For all that, though, migration here is still largely a water-based show, with the most spectacular signs of springs coming in the forms of ducks, geese, and swans. Several locations in the state, most notably Freezeout Lake, are graced with epic spring migrations of Snow Geese and Tundra Swans as they return north along the Pacific Flyway.

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This Week in Bird(ing) News: The Good, the Bad, and the Huh?

10,000 Birds

According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the bugs that cause House Finch Eye Disease have shown up in other species of birds. Angel wing syndrome” is yet another reason not to toss your breadcrumbs to those geese in the park. Friends don’t let Ospreys build nests with fishing lines or baling twine.

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What’s in a Name: Northern Goshawk

10,000 Birds

Since we’ve covered some generalities already, once a month I’ll be exploring how a species, genus, or family of birds got its name, and how those names fit in with our larger understanding of, and relationship with, birds. At the request of blog management, I’m embarking on a series of posts on the names of birds.

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